Cocktails with Soda water
Soda water is plain water carbonated under pressure, with no sweetener or flavoring added.
How it's used
Used to lengthen and lift a build, poured on top to add fizz and a light texture without changing the drink’s flavor. A top-up of about 60 ml gives roughly a third of the glass; less than that and the fizz is gone before the drink is. Always add it last, after the spirits and syrups, so it keeps its bubbles.
Substitutes for Soda water
Any unflavored sparkling water does the same job, in the same amount, as long as it is cold and freshly opened. A strongly mineralized water tastes salty and will make the drink salty too, so a lightly mineralized one is safer. Tonic, lemon-lime soda and other sweet sodas are not substitutes: they bring sugar and flavor and change the drink. Still water will not do: it adds volume but no bubbles.
Natural sparkling mineral water
Water from a natural source that carries its own minerals, and sometimes its own gas.
Tonic water
Carbonated water with quinine and sugar. The quinine makes it bitter, so it is a flavor ingredient, not a lengthener.
Club soda
Carbonated water with a little mineral salt, such as sodium bicarbonate, added for taste. In a cocktail the difference from plain seltzer barely shows.
